This follows the completion of the printing of the backlog of 541,529 cards in the NIA’s database.

This is pursuant to the promise made to Parliament to print the said cards in 11 days upon receipt of the blank cards.

The Director of Corporate Affairs of the NIA, Dr Abdul Ganiyu, said the cards would be dispatched to the regional and district offices for the exercise.

This will include all those who have been captured for the card at different NIA registration exercises, either through the mass registration exercise or at the various district offices.

Backlog printed

Last Wednesday, the NIA in a press statement announced that it had completed the printing of the cards following the payment of GH¢100 million by the government to CalBank PLC to pave the way to clear the backlog which arose from the shortage of blank cards due to financial challenges.

“With focus, rigour and coherence in project management and implementation, NIA achieved this feat with a dedicated team of supervisors, assistant technical support officers and assistant technical enrolment officers drawn from its Headquarters, regional and districts offices.

“The printed cards, which are now being packaged, will be distributed to NIA’s regional and district offices nationwide from today, Wednesday, March 29, 2023, to Sunday, April 2, 2023, for issuance to registered applicants, and the cards will be available at the district or regional offices for collection from Wednesday, April 5, 2023,” the statement said.

Debt

Since last year, the Ghana Card has become the main form of ID accepted for formal transactions at the banks and for the sim card re-registration exercise.

However, many Ghanaians who have registered for their Ghana Card since July 2022 were yet to receive their cards, as the NIA had not been able to print the cards.

The authority blamed the situation on its indebtedness to its partners such as the Identity Management System Limited, which had caused more than 3.5 million stock of cards locked up in a bonded warehouse.

The Executive Secretary of the NIA, Professor Ken Agyemang Attafuah, gave the assurance that once the debts were cleared, his outfit would be in a position to print and issue the outstanding cards.

“There are 541,529 cards that are not yet printed.

That is, they are ready to be printed but have not been printed, and that is largely because of financial difficulty,” he said.

Cards locked up

Prof. Attafuah said more then 3.5 million stock of cards had been locked in bonded houses as the NIA creditors and partners had refused to release them until a substantial amount of the debt owed was cleared.

“Since about August of last year, we have experienced financial constipation in the system, and it created a situation where even though we have 3.5 million stock of cards in a bonded warehouse, we are unable to access the cards because of financial difficulty.

“The banks are owed, the private partner with whom the NIA does business, the Identity Management System Limited, which is the private partner we are working with, and we are operating this Ghana Card project under public-private partnership arrangement.

That partner is owed a considerable amount of money, and the banks that have been bankrolling this are unable to further bear the cost, and, therefore, have refused to release the cards to us,” Prof. Attafuah explained.

Premium service

Prof. Attafuah said as of February 19, 2023, the NIA had registered over 27 million people, adding that only 2.5 million people were yet to be registered.

Though the cards were not being issued, customers who opted for the premium service, which is paid for, had always been issued their cards.

The premium service offered at some selected premium centres serve the expatriates who legally reside in Ghana, as well as Ghanaians who choose to pay a fee of GH¢285 for the card instead of waiting to be issued with one for free.